Martin Fowler
Martin Albert Fowler is a character on the long-running UK soap, EastEnders. He was originally played by Jon Peyton-Price as a child, and then as a teenager by James Alexandrou. As an adult, he is currently played by James Bye. The Fowler patriarch Martin is the current head of the Fowler branch of the combined Beale/Fowler family (his older cousin, Ian is the head of the Beale half of the family). He was the late-in-life son of Arthur Fowler (Bill Treacher) and Pauline Fowler (Wendy Richard). He was, in fact, the first child that had been born on the series. He is the current owner and operator of the Fruit and Vegetable stall in Walford's open-air street market. The stall had been in Martin's family for many years, having been started by Albert Beale, his maternal grandfather (and his great-grandfather, Albert's father). Then two of his uncles, Ronnie Beale and Pete Beale ran the stall for a time, then Ian ran it; then his late older brother, Mark Fowler, and now he runs the stall, keeping it in the family. When Pauline announced that she was pregnant, this infuriated her mother, Lou Beale, as she felt that Arthur and Pauline already had enough children (Mark and Martin's older sister, Michelle) and since Arthur was constantly unemployed, how were they going to support another child? The troublemaking Lou ordered Pauline to have an abortion, give the baby up for adoption, or the family would be evicted. The eviction threat was a often go-to tactic that Lou would throw at her daughter, in order for her to get her own way. However, this time, the defiant Pauline stood her ground and Martin was born. Lou, despite her continual bluster and her token disapproval, was secretly pleased, because she saw the new baby as another Fowler she could boss around. What made it easier for her was she won over by a family trip to Clacton with Michelle, and she was then even MORE won over when they christened him, Martin Albert Fowler. The Albert comes from his maternal grandfather, Albert Beale. At first Martin's life was like any other ordinary kid, except he was in the middle of rows between his folks, especially after his father was caught in an adulterous affair with alcoholic divorcee, Christine Hewitt. As a result of said affair, Pauline banned Arthur from seeing Martin, (besides slamming him in the head with a frying pan!) but they would reconcile. His life would take a terrible turn for the worse though, when his father died when he was ten, due to an injury he suffered while he was in prison. He would get hooked up with a gang from his school and he would become quite the tearaway. He would commit vandalism, petty theft and burglaries, which led him to being arrested. He would later be put under the supervision of a social worker. His life of crime would come to a screeching end after the death of Jamie Mitchell, whom he ran down with a car. He then had sex with Sonia Jackson and she would give birth to their daughter, Chloe, now known as Bex. Her birth would start a feud between his mother and the rest of the Jackson family. After many rows over how she would be taken care of, Sonia put the child up for adoption, but however, Sonia would also kidnap her, and after a time, would give her back to the adoptive parents. When her guardian died, Martin and Pauline were given custody of her and they would continually exclude Sonia from her life. Which exacerbated the feud between Sonia and Pauline. Eventually Martin and Sonia would marry to give Rebecca a solid family, but they were forced to live with Pauline, due to their lack of resources. Her continuous nagging (which also destroyed her marriage to Arthur, and drove Mark and Michelle out of Walford) drove both crazy and wasn't beneficial to Rebecca. They would divorce, but they would regret it and they would reunite. This would infuriate Pauline and they would row all over again. However, it would get much worse. Pauline was preparing to move to America, which devastated Martin. He tried to convince her to remain, but he failed at this. Later on, it was discovered that she had a brain tumor. He, along with Ian, would find her dead in the square. At first, he thought that his stepfather, Joe Macer, had killed her, but Sonia, whom he had just proposed to, admitted she had done the deed, as they had fought earlier (which smashed the Fowler fruit bowl). A furious Martin had Sonia arrested after she had slapped him, and then would forbid her to even be near Rebecca. Sonia would take Rebecca and go on the run, which would devastate Martin. He would later find out that his suspicions about Joe had been correct all along. He found out his mother had died from a sharp blow to the back of her head. Joe had hit her with a frying pan (in the same manner that Pauline herself had beaned Arthur Fowler after she found out about his affair with Mrs. Hewitt), and he himself would die after falling out of the window after a fight with Pauline's friend, Dot Branning. Pauline had left the house to Martin, but only if he would not live in it with Sonia. They reconcile anyway, and then, he, Sonia, Rebecca and his mother's dog, Betty, would go to America for a while. They would travel in the States and would stay with Michelle. However, Martin would stay in the States, while Sonia returned for her sister, Bianca Jackson's (Patsy Palmer) wedding. She would tell her mother, Carol (Lindsay Coulson) that they had marital problems. She and Rebecca were living in Dagenham and Martin would have a new girlfriend in Manchester. Martin would later return and he and Sonia would try to get their marriage back in order but that would inevitably fail. Martin's later love, Stacey Martin would later convince Rebecca to move to Walford. She went by the name, Bex, now. She would later go through a goth phase, using her original name, Chloe. But however, even she got disenchanted with being a goth, and she stopped it. Martin would later fall in love with Stacey Slater and for a while, they were committed to one another, but not married, as she was afraid to remarry after the death of her first husband, Bradley Branning. Stacey would become pregnant with her second child, (she already had a daughter, named Lily, whose father was Ryan Malloy) and she would give birth to a boy. She and Martin would name him Arthur, after his late father, but she would have a case of postpartum psychosis, thinking that everyone was a demon who wanted to take her baby from her. It was later revealed that Arthur's real father wasn't Martin, but was his best friend, Kush Kazemi. After Stacey had been sectioned because of this, Martin would take custody of the child. He would later be told by Stacey to raise Lily and Arthur as she wanted them to be raised. Martin, having had his first taste of being a dad with Bex, took to being a dad to two very young children with ease. Bex would also offer her assistance, to Martin's gratitude. She grew to love Lily and Arthur as her younger siblings. He even allowed Kush to be a part of Arthur's life. Bex and Martin would later move into her mother's old house, as Sonia had moved to Kettering for a job. Martin would be involved in a harrowing disaster when a double-decker bus would crash into the viaduct, and would be wedged, which would damage the street market and injure Martin. During this time, everyone in the square would put their various differences and enmities aside and help get things back in order on the street and help out the injured. However, not long after that, Bex would be bullied by two very nasty girls at school, due to them sending a porn picture of Bex and posting it all over the internet. The trauma of being bullied tore Bex to shreds and in tears, she called Sonia. A furious Sonia stormed in and raged at Martin about not being there for Bex when she needed him. Eventually, Martin realized what was going on and talked with Bex about it, and he comforted her. It shows just how much he adored his oldest child. He was upset that Louise Mitchell, Bex's best mate, was also one of the bullies. However, she would finally wise up to the bullies, Alexandra D'Costa and her friend, Madison Drake, especially after she herself would become a victim of the evil teenagers. Martin would run into a tough patch with Stacey after it was revealed that she had slept with her former father in-law, Max Branning. He would throw her out of the house and would forbid her to see the kids. However, she would turn the tables against him and having a friend of hers help to change the locks on the door and she would have her family move in. Martin and Bex would move in with Sonia. However, Martin would still have feelings for Stacey and they would eventually reconcile. While Bex still lived with Sonia, and her uncle, Robbie Jackson (Dean Gaffney), Martin is still very much involved in Bex's life and proves that he is a great father, there for his daughter when she needs him. Although she can be embarrassed by her father's displays of affection for her, she knows that her dad clearly loves her dearly. When Shakil Kazemi, Kush's younger brother, died, leaving Bex devastated, Martin came to her side and he and Sonia comforted her. After several rows about her future, which was included with some bouts of Bex being severely stressed by pressure from both her parents, Martin fell to pieces when Bex did a runner. Martin would get into a fight with Stuart Highway, whom was staying with Sonia. He would go and try to find Bex, aided by Rainie Branning. They would find the near paranoid Bex in Shoreditch, where she was scared and alone. With gentle coaxing by both Stuart and Rainie (usually not very reassuring folk in the best of times), Bex let them get her back to Walford. Her return to home and hearth gladdened his and Sonia's worried hearts. After a heart-to-heart, Bex revealed that she had taken those pills to keep her focus. After Bex's outburst and her leaving the room, both Sonia and Stacey tried to convince Martin to ease up on her. Stacey told Martin that what Bex had done was in a way similar to how she was with her bipolar disorder, that she was reaching for a lifeline, any lifeline to keep her from going under. Martin would eventually see this, but he still went to see Bex. Bex revealed that she felt that she had let her parents down. However, Martin made it quite clear to her that even though she had scared him badly, she never would ever let them down. He then comforted his daughter, who, after answering questions about Kush, just fell asleep, safe in his arms. However, due to Kush's intrusions in Bex's life (she gained an unwise crush on him, after the fact that she never got over the death of his brother, Shakil), Martin wrathfully broke with him. Now, Martin and Kush are arch-enemies, with them fighting over Arthur (Kush being the boy's natural father). Kush, with the unwilling aid of Kat Slater, who was dating him after the desertion of her husband, Alfie; wants full custody of his son, even going to the point of hiring a solicitor; while Kat's cousin, Stacey, who is Arthur's mother, refuses to give up her son to him. This led to Stacey and Kat, cousins, falling out and being at daggers drawn. However, after an aborted boxing match, and their teaming up to recover Martin's money pouch from two thieves who ran off with it, during said boxing match, he and Kush patched up their differences, and are working towards a logical solution for Kush to see Arthur. However, Kat and Stacey forbid the two from even being around one another! The two would go to the newly christened Prince Albert gay bar where they can meet and talk. Martin even brought Arthur to see Kush (which was all he really wanted it seemed); and they are well on their way to strengthening their nearly sundered friendship. Category:EastEnders characters